Subject: chopstick question

From: [email-masked] (Joy)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 93 12:45:27 GMT

I need help with a troubling question of etiquette....  
A rumor has come to my attention (through a friend of friend).  Namely,
that putting down your (Chinese? thai-made?  Californian?) chopsticks
at a restaurant?  house?  wedding? in a _certain way_ is considered rude.
Can anyone clear this up?

Gracias...   
jj

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Jeffrey Joy - [email-masked] - My Opinions are my defense against
the facts. - austin chicago amherst - people are not strange, just mutil-
ated - what can it touch? - your delicous breath on my shoulder is sacrilege.

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From: [email-masked] (Bayla Singer)
Date: 25 Dec 1993 03:21:19 GMT

When I was in Japan, my daughter* warned me that chopsticks should be
treated with respect: no twirling, twiddling, etc.  Further, she told
me that rice for the dead is customarily offered with the chopsticks
standing upright in the bowl, and therefore that position is not
considered acceptable in other contexts.

*then a graduate student at the U of Kyoto, courtesy of the Monbusho.

--bayla

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From: [email-masked] (THOMPSON BENJAMIN RHINELANDER)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1993 00:55:51 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
>*then a graduate student at the U of Kyoto, courtesy of the Monbusho.

Also, never pass anything from one pair of chopsticks ("haji") to another,
at least in Japan. The taboo in Japan has to do with funeral rites, but
I've heard that it may be permissable in other countries like China.

-- 
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